The French side secured back-to-back titles with a clinical performance against Mark McCall’s men.

TOULON CLAIMED THE last-ever Heineken Cup with a clinical 23-6 victory over Saracens at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff.

Led by sublime back rows Steffon Armitage and Juan Smith, who was retired from rugby last year, Bernard Laporte’s men scored two excellent tries and won a higher percentage of the collisions than their English rivals.

There was a distinctly South African flavour to the biggest physical confrontations in this encounter, with Craig Burden, Bakkies Botha and Smith demonstrating a range of explosive and wrestling in-contact skills. That said, Armitage was once again a constant menace at the breakdown.

It was the ability of Jonny Wilkinson and Matt Giteau to identify space that was largely responsible for the two all-important tries, however, with the latter once again proving his importance as a playmaker for Toulon.

A scrum penalty allowed Owen Farrell to open the scoring for Saracens in the third minute, before the game settled into a dour opening quarter in which stoppages for TMO enquiries were more common than gainline advances.

Both sides looked to kick out from inside their own halves, with the attacks operating narrowly when they did enjoy territory. Toulon’s Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe was sin-binned in the 22nd minute for a challenge on Alistair Hargreaves in the air, although Saracens failed to take advantage of their numerical superiority.

It came down to a moment of imagination from the wonderful Giteau to spark this final into life.

As Toulon worked from right to left just inside the Saracens half, the Australian spotted space deep behind the English side’s half, calling for a long pass from Wilkinson to switch play.

Giteau launched a clever kick in behind Sarries’ front-line defence, allowing Drew Mitchell to race onto the ball and offload back inside as Alex Goode made a despairing covering tackle.

Giteau strode over in the right-hand corner, and with Wilkinson expertly converting, Toulon found themselves 7-3 up in the 31st minute.

Earlier penalty misses for Saracens through Marcelo Bosch and Farrell proved costly as Wilkinson extended that Toulon lead with 38 minutes on the clock. A powerful maul from the French side’s forwards brought a penalty advantage from referee Alain Rolland, but Wilkinson instead struck with a sweet drop goal.

Farrell was provided with the ideal chance to reduce the deficit for Saracens shortly after the interval, as Matt Stevens milked another scrum penalty from Xavier Chiocci, who was subbed off after Farrell knocked over the three points.

With Toulon showing their depth by springing the likes of former All Black Ali Williams and France lock Jocelino Suta from the bench, a magnificent turnover penalty by Armitage resulted in Wilkinson kicking his side into a 13-6 lead in the 54th minute.

Juan Smith crosses for a clinical try in the second half.
Source: James Crombie/INPHO

A try of sheer quality sealed the Toulon win in the 60th minute, as Wilkinson’s long pass under pressure allowed Mitchell to release Mathieu Bastareaud up the right. The heavyweight France centre offloaded to Smith, who exchanged passes with Fernandez Lobbe to finish a remarkable team score.

Wilkinson’s superb conversion from out wide sent Toulon 20-6 in front with less than 20 minutes remaining and the English out-half slotted a long-range penalty soon after, benefiting from Farrell leaving a shoulder in on Bryan Habana.

With Mathieu Bastareaud attempting a drop goal, Armitage running riot at defensive rucks, and Virgile Bruni having a late gallop up the left wing, Toulon were comfortable in seeing out the remainder of the game, securing their second consecutive European title.

TheJournal.ie is a full participating member of the Press Council of Ireland and supports
the Office of the Press Ombudsman. This scheme in addition to defending the freedom of the
press, offers readers a quick, fair and free method of dealing with complaints that they may
have in relation to articles that appear on our pages. To contact the Office of the
Press Ombudsman Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or go to
www.pressombudsman.ie
or www.presscouncil.ie

Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies policy.

Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, submissions or preferences. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, posts, comments and submissions available. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for the content of external websites.